Brand New World
by ChrisWorld
Summary: Come follow the journey of a young Pirate Captain, who currently has no crew, stricken with the curse of constant bad luck on the ocean.
1. Starting the Dream

**Disclaimer: One does not own One Piece, or even work there. One wishes that one would work there, or own it. If that were true, one would be happy.**

**Brand New World  
Prologue  
Starting the Dream**

The night was half through and he was not yet asleep. The lights in the everlasting sky shone down on him with deep intent to keep him awake for as long as possible. The constellation of Retchi was one of the few star signs that he could name, and now his eyes were constantly drawn to it.

Tracing the stars across the sky, the lines that created the constellations pointed and drew his eyes down to the horizon. There was no sunlight, but that doesn't mean that the world wasn't dark. The light of the moon was more than enough to show near everything that he needed inside the boat.

Nothing would be able to get him asleep. He launched upwards and leaned forward as if to hug his knees. His chin bounced heavily onto the top of his kneecaps and his arms dangled downwards, his hands draping onto the hard, cold, wooden base of the ship.

The horizon sea stood glistening all around. The sea was intimidating, the sea was beautiful. Neither of these features bothered him at all. He was more annoyed about the sea than anything else. The never ending blue explosion mass of fish and water, or so he called it, had been underneath him for the better part of four days.

He was running out of food.

He looked around, his stomach growling and spotted a piece of naan bread. It was his last piece of bread of any kind. He ripped a piece off and nibbled on the small shard silently, praying that he would receive any kind of sustenance. Nothing. But he knew that he couldn't just scarf down the entire piece of bread. He had to ration it, like he had been doing for the last few days.

After washing up on an island known as Katakora, he was able to build some kind of a raft ship, thing. Though it was functional, durable and rather big for a first time ship, it wasn't the fastest thing around. The sail was barely able to catch any wind, seeing as though it was made from thin bed linen that he had been given to a kind old lady after helping her with her garden.

He spent a few days at the small island village, doing odd jobs to gain lumber, to build the boat with, the cloth to use as the sail, and a few food rations. He washed up with a compass in his pocket, which was fortunate since the islanders were sparse for such machinery, although a compass can't be considered machinery.

Though the captain had made many friends on the island of Katakora, it had not come without enemies. There was one who thought lowly of him, because he was a pirate. A Zoan Devil Fruit user known as Harpie, the woman had taken an instant dislike to him, often scowling and pausing her conversation when he walked past.

Their final battle took place on the last day of the Captain's stay at Katakora. She found out that he was leaving that day and thought it best to stop him then. To stop him from going out into the world and becoming a menace.

He was carrying some logs to the shipyard, or, in other words, the beach. Harpie dived down from the sky in front of the Captain on the well used path to his destination. She morphed into her human form and pointed at the Captain.

She disapproved of what he was doing, saying that he was taking advantage of the villagers good nature. He placed down the logs of wood down by a flowerbed filled with roses. He remembered tending for the flowers the day before.

The Captain's attention was brought out of the flashback to a troubling situation. The wind was beginning to pick up and the waves were pushing harder against the small raft. He dived upwards and pulled down the sail, rolling it up swiftly and untidily under one of the benches that he had taken with him from Katakora. He placed a brick on top of it to stop it from being blown away by the strong wind, wondering when he had acquired it.

He knelt down and wobbled over to the front of his ship. He looked down into the ocean, to see if he could think of a way to steady his ship, if needed.

The waves rose up high and pushed the ship further into the dark sky. The end of the tidal wave was in sight. The drop back down to sea level was great. The ship had a great possibility of being broken to pieces from the impact of the drop. Despite his current situation, his mind wondered back to the fight with Harpie.

After a bit of banter between them, Harpie and the Captain stood ready to fight. Harpie transformed into her half human-half sparrow form. She stood tall, towering above the Captain. Though the half human-half animal should usually look large and in charge, but she looked meek. Though Harpie was a devil fruit user, the Captain, however, was not. But felt strangely calm and confident of his powers. Even with the presence of the Half Sparrow-Half Human.

Harpie teased her latest victim. Verbally attacking, saying that he was useless in the form of combat.

The Captain wondered at her behaviour. She had no proof to make this absurd conclusion. In any fight that he had been in, he had always won. But he didn't know how powerful a Zoan Fruit user was. He had only fought Paramecia Fruit users.

Harpie made a running lunge for the Captain, but he stood tall without shifting and inch. He pulled his right arm back, fist clenched, ready to make a punch. He rocketed his fist forward and hammered Harpie on the top of her head. He back-flipped, pushing his foot into Harpie's throat. She was blasted backwards onto a set of tulips. He shook his hand and squinted slightly in pain. Though she was part sparrow, she was still relatively hard headed.

The Captain had remembered spending hours catering for the flowers. Remembering how much work he had put into making them perfect for Mrs Carringer. How he had spent hours pulling out weeds, putting in more bulbs, grazing his hands from pulling out thistles.

Harpie stood up, scraping the ground underneath her, trying not to fall over. She was slightly dazed from the intense damage she had taken to the head and the throat. She tried to stay focused on her target, but found it difficult to see only one of him.

The ship pushed off the edge of the tidal wave and slowly fell to the long dark ocean. It was blown to pieces on impact. He was blasted into the sky. His ears were ringing and everything was a red tint. The rest was a blur.

The Captain resurfaced and treaded water until he could find something to cling on to, to keep him above water. A piece of lumber from the ship bobbed up to the surface of ocean. He raced towards it, splashing water in every direction. He made a grab for the lumber and floated along with it.

His breath was short, but he didn't feel the need to exert any energy in kicking. He just needed to hold on as tight as he could muster. His luck on the ocean wasn't getting any better, but after his ride on a tidal wave, it wasn't getting any worse.

Another tidal wave began pulling up behind him, dragging him up towards the mid-way point. The Captain looked to the horizon; he was high up enough to see Next Island and the sun behind it. He squinted against the light and studied the land.

Houses were scattered about across the sand. They stood tall against the shoreline, wooden bungalows stood high on large, thick, wooden stilts. The Captain studied the area further, noticing that the majority of the island was covered in trees. He noticed that there was an old man in a rocking chair outside one of the bungalows. The Captain recognized the island by the look of the trees. He had done some research about it and the piece of information that had stuck with him was that the island had an unusually large beach.

Harpie made another launch for the Captain but she completely missed, running through an illusion. The Captain turned around to face her, still angered that she had trodden over the tulips that he had spent hours caring for, but confused as to why she had just rammed through midair.

He spun himself around and looked down his nose angrily at his opponent. He breathed heavily trying to suppress any anger that he may have been feeling for Harpie. The Captain always tried to keep very calm and collected, even with heavy emotions buzzing around.

Harpie turned around and transformed into her human form. She saw the anger burning in the Captain's eyes. She crab walked backwards in total fear, over a set of roses. After crushing the roses, she realized that she had hundreds of thorns pushed into each of her hands. She ignored the pain.

The Captain had a sudden idea while racing along with the wave. He was resting on a piece of driftwood left behind from his ship. He thought to use it as a surf-board, maybe to get a more cushioned landing from the wood, or at least skid across the beach to slow himself down.

He wobbled slowly further onto the plank, so most of his torso was splayed across the floating platform. He shuddered slightly as the tidal wave rose higher above sea level, trying not to look down. He stumbled up further onto his surf-board, wobbling even more when at his feet.

He noticed that the shore was going out into the sea, towards him. The wave must have been big. He stumbled again, thinking about how high he was. He could be yards, meters, miles above sea level. He tried not to think about it, wobbling once more as he tried to erase the thought out of his memory.

The Captain thought for a bit, thought if this was really the right decision, if it was really the right decision to be a pirate. What would have happened if he made a different decision in his life? If he chose to be a marine, maybe he wouldn't be in the position he was in now. He wouldn't be surfing a tidal wave, miles above sea level in the middle of the night, towards an unknown island, on a piece of driftwood from his small boat that he had made from lumber that he had collected from doing odd jobs on an island that he had just found.

"Now is not the time to have regrets." He spoke with a whisper, his voice getting progressively louder as he continued speaking. "I am a pirate. This has already been established." He had an incredibly posh accent. "This is where I make my stand, make my mark. I hope that people can accept me, even though I'm a criminal. Accept me to help them with odd jobs, like the islanders of Katakora." He voice boomed over the crashing of the waves.

"I am James S. Wich! To the Grand Line! Away!!"

Crash.

Okay. Thank you for reading this story, or chapter, or something. I don't really know. Hope you enjoyed it and take part in what is following!!

Yeah, basically, this is a twin-story of TheMatchingOddSocks One Piece fanfic: Golden Era. The stories should hopefully follow each other and occasionally, the main characters (Captain's and crews) will meet each other. Or at least I should hope.

Regardless, like her story, I will ask you, the PUBLIC (go dramaticalness!!) to take part in this story! Basically, make up an OC, then tell me about it!

But you have to follow this form.

Name:

Bounty name (If they may have need of one):

Age:

Species: (One piece species please!)

Gender:

Position (In the marines/in a pirate crew/Bounty Hunter ect):

Attacks/Weapon/Devil Fruit:

Looks:

Personality:

History:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Dream:

Other:

Please remember to review the story too :)

Did _so _not copy this from Golden Era. Nope. Made it myself. Absolutely.

Regardless, go into as much detail as you want. The more the better I say. But y'know, to be as discriminating as possible. NO NINJA'S. ChrisWorld will not be amused.

Ta ducks! :D


	2. The Catacombs and Bronze

Disclaimer: One does not own One Piece, or even work there. One wishes that one would work there, or own it. If that were true, one would be happy.

**Brand New World**

**Chapter 1  
The Catacombs and Bronze**

The tidal wave crashed down on the large expansion of the beach. The foam made from the wave pushed forwards and along with it was, of course, James, speeding ahead of the wave on his make-shift surf board.

The sand of the beach was relatively moist from previous waves that had stricken the island, so James was able to slide across the sand with little friction. He was slowing down as he continued further towards the main part of the land.

"Balance, balance, balance..." he chanted to himself as he focused as hard as he could while surfing.

Since he was technically sliding across sea water, which counts as the ocean according to the Paramecia rules of the Devil Fruit, he was still being cursed. The nose of the surf-board dug into the sand, and James was propelled forward, still influenced by the forward momentum.

He threw his hands in front of him, preparing himself for some sort of roll, still flying through the air. He passed over onto dry land, towards the man in the rocking chair he had seen previously, while on top of the tidal wave.

James crash-landed into a bramble bush.

"Oh come on..." he grumbled before trying to work his way out.

The old man looked over his porch to where James was struggling out of the bush. He noticed that cuts ravaged his body and clothing. "You don't seem to have much luck."

"Apparently while I'm not on the ocean." He stumbled up and saw the man looking over at him with a mug of tea in his hand. "Where am I?"

"The island of Regatora." The man pulled out a tea pot from within his clothing, he offered James some tea. He stood up and accepted the tea, which seemed to have been boiling within the man's pocket.

The old man led James up to his porch, where they both sat on his wooden chairs which was possibly used for any other company that he would want to invite on his property, or someone that just flew into his bramble bush.

James took a sip of his tea and exhaled harshly through his nose. He was a little out of breath from the feat he had just achieved. He placed the tea down on the table and crossed his arms. He began thinking about past events, before he washed up on Katakora, before he decided that he needed to move on, before-

"You said you came from Katakora? But you weren't there always, were you?" the man brought James out of his trance.

"Correct, sir! I didn't come from Katakora. In fact, I come from an island very far away, which I'm not at liberty to disclose. Before I was at Katakora, I was at the Catacombs, with-" James started, but he was interrupted by the old man, troubled that James had ventured to such a dangerous place. "Yeah, we went there. A friend and I heard that there was treasure, so we decided to go..." James mind drifted to his story, into his past.

James began his story by describing him and his friend running up a set of stairs to the room where they suspected the treasure of the Catacombs was.

"The stairway was dark and damp, and since Bronze wasn't wearing proper shoes, he was constantly complaining that his feet were cold." The old man looked confused at James's explanation. For one thing, he didn't know who Bronze was, he suspected that it was a friend of James, but he couldn't know for sure. It didn't seem that James was a good story teller.

"'I told you to start putting on shoes, Bronze!' I yelled at him while we continued up the staircase.

"We continued climbing the expansive staircase, keeping in mind that the opening at the top wasn't getting any closer. I was keeping my cool, being as active and energetic as ever... Bronze however...

"'Kill me now!' Bronze dropped to the floor, out of breath. Completely exhausted.

"I had to stop and turn around to pick him up, or at least tried to. I just grabbed him by the arm and started tugging him. 'If we want this treasure, Bronze, then we have. To. Climb. Up!' I tried pulling at him again, emphasizing each word by pulling the boy up a stair but it seemed impossible to motivate Bronze. I ended up dragging him up, running as quickly as I was doing previously.

"I noticed that he had suddenly got heavier, so I turned around to see what the problem might have been. Much to my annoyance, Bronze had used his powers to create a toboggan out of bronze. 'DAMMIT BRONZE!' I screamed at him. I kicked him off the toboggan and pulled him up.

"'Why can't you just take me to the top? Just carry me the rest of the way!' he pointed to the peak of the stairway. 'Look! We're nearly there!'

"I turned around, noticing that Bronze was right, we were nearly at the summit of the staircase. So I ingeniously thought, 'Yes, we're nearly at the top. So _you _can just run up with me.'

"'You dinosaur egg…' Bronze sighed in disdain. I ran up and Bronze followed, still moaning all the while.

"'Larry!' I stood at the tip of the staircase, Bronze still trailing up the staircase, completely out of breath. 'We want your treasure!'

"'You think I'm just going to give it to you?' the man the size of a house called back at me, sitting on his throne. The position reminded me of Gecko Moria, one of the ex-Seven Pirate Warlords.

"'You best-' Bronze gasped for air behind me, he was clambering up slowly on his hands and knees up the staircase. 'You best make it-…' his head emerged at the tip of the stairwell. 'TUNA BAKE WELL TART!' I wouldn't worry too much; he always says the odd random word when he's tired.

"I looked down at Bronze, still in a triumphant position, pointing at Larry. I was greatly annoyed by the fact that he had just interrupted my magnificent entrance. 'Dammit Bronze…' I grumbled.

"Bronze stood up, studying the troubling situation. Me, a non-Devil Fruit trying to fight a 20 foot giant, who is also a Devil Fruit User. And we don't know what his power is. Bronze was also a Paramecia Fruit User, which helped them slightly.

"'Bronze Bronze…' he prepared himself for an attack, pulling away the form of the Bronze Bracelets. 'CANNONBALL!' he threw a cannonball sized Bronze ball at Larry, hoping it would do some damage. It hit the giant on the chest, bouncing off, the giant was unscathed. 'Oh poo…' the bronze that Bronze had conjured up into the cannonball seethed towards him, pulling itself back towards Bronze, and into his bracelet once again.

"We were both in shock, to say the least. Bronze's most powerful attack, it left the giant still sitting in the same place. He was not hurt, at all. We had no idea what to do now, neither of us had any other attacks that could even slightly hurt Larry.

"'You are a Devil Fruit User. You will be no help to me…' Larry mumbled under his breath, but his voice was so loud and bellowing, it sounded like it was just like he was talking at us.

"Larry extended his leg swiftly, kicking Bronze through the wall and over into the Western Ocean, possibly into the Grand Line. I turned towards the hole in the wall, absolutely shocked. I turned back to Larry, who was conjuring up a ball of energy.

"He leant down and grabbed me, holding me up to his eye level. I was too terrified to even think of squirming. I didn't know what to do. This man was too powerful, he had just knocked Bronze into the Grand Line, and now he was conjuring up some kind of ball of energy.

"'Don't be afraid little one. I'm just going to take your luck!'

"What happened next?" the old man had waited for a few seconds. James had lowered his head and begun to stop talking. "What happened to you?"

James hesitated before answering. Seeming overwrought due to the event. What was he going to say? "The next thing I remember is waking up in Katakora." He shrugged off his negative behaviour and smiled again. "So is the main part of the town just behind this house?" he stood up, looking around the side of the building.

"Yes. Are you going to leave?" the old man seemed sad, he was just lonely.

"Yup." He hoped over the fencing that surrounding the old man's porch. "THANK YOU FOR THE TEA!" he yelled while running off.

A woman was watching James run off from afar. Valerie Steel. The Marine Captain of the 32nd Fleet. The most powerfully… equipped fleet. The one thing that she hated was Pirate Scum, and the one person she hated was-

"James S. Wich." She began to run at him. "HEEL OF STEEL!" she got closer to James and took a jump, spinning sideways through the air. Her right leg transforming into steel. "VALKYRIE'S AXE!"

James noticed that something was talking and he stopped and looked around. He saw it was Valkyrie and looked strangely at her. Like he was slightly shocked by the fact that she was there, with him. He bent his knees and leaned backwards, watching her entire body fly over the top of him.

Okay. I don't know why that took forever to write… It was actually an alright chapter… Maybe I just didn't want to write about Larry. Pfft… Larry. I was asking TheMatchingOddSocks what I could call this guy, she just said Larry. Damn her, she obsessed with Teen Titans.

Erm… I know it kind of looks like James is good at a lot of things, he isn't. He can JUST GET BY. Y'know, HINT HINT and all that. I'm _so _not hinting at needing a shipwright or navigator. Not at _all_~!

And now for the usual stuff…

Yeah, basically, this is a twin-story of TheMatchingOddSocks One Piece fanfic: Golden Era. The stories should hopefully follow each other and occasionally, the main characters (Captain's and crews) will meet each other. Or at least I should hope.

Regardless, like her story, I will ask you, the PUBLIC (go dramaticalness!) to take part in this story! Basically, make up an OC, then tell me about it!

But you have to follow this form.

Name:

Bounty name (If they may have need of one):

Age:

Species: (One piece species please!)

Gender:

Position (In the marines/in a pirate crew/Bounty Hunter ect):

Attacks/Weapon/Devil Fruit:

Looks:

Personality:

History:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Dream:

Other:

Please remember to review the story too :)

Did _so _not copy this from Golden Era. Nope. Made it myself. Absolutely.

Regardless, go into as much detail as you want. The more the better I say. But y'know, to be as discriminating as possible. NO NINJA'S. ChrisWorld will not be amused.

Ta ducks! :D


End file.
